Shopping in britain

In Britain there are a lot of big and small shops. There is a tendency in Britain and the USA for small shops to disappear. They are eaten up by big firms, which have branches all over the country. Many people regret the disappearance of small shops.

In big shops called department stores one can buy everything: suits, dresses, coats, shoes, food and what not. In big shops the customer does not pay the shop assistant, but takes the bill to the cash desk and pays the cashier. Many people pay by check or by check card. If you want to pay by check, you don’t have to worry about holding up lines of impatient cash payers behind you. In some stores you have to go to a special desk to have your check approved before going to the checkout line.

In some shops there is a special depart­ment where they wrap up the purchases and hand them over to customers. In many supermarkets you don’t have to sack your own groceries at the checkout. They will do it for you. You can actually have your purchases taken to your car for you. Some shops have a home delivery service. But big shops are very useful to the public. They have a large variety of goods and sell them at reasonable prices.

Harrods is the largest store in Europe with goods displayed in sixty shop windows and five hectares and a half of selling space. It was opened in 1849 and now it has 230 departments, a room where you can have a rest if you are tired and even a kennel for customers’ dogs. There are lots of escala­tors and lifts inside the store. Harrods also offers a number of special services to its customers including six restaurants, some bars and tea rooms, a bank, an insurance department, a tra­vel agency, London's last circulating library, a theatre ti­cket agency and a funeral service.

There can be about 50.000 customers a day. You can buy almost everything in Harrods and you know you're getting the best. In one year over 14 million purchases are made in its departments where you can buy anything from a pin to an elephant. It is Harrods' policy to stock a wide and exciting range of goods in every department, to give the customer a choice of goods which is unique in its variety and which no other store can offer. For example, Harrods stocks 450 different cheeses, 500 types of shirts and 9000 ties to go with them, 8000 dresses and 150 different pianos, etc.

Harrods has a worldwide reputation for first-class service. It has a staff of 4000, rising to 6000 at Christmas time. Over 40 million worth of goods are exported annually from Harrods. The Export Depart­ment can deal with any customer's purchase or order and will pack and send goods to any address in the world.

Twice a year, in January and July, Harrods has a “sale”. Some things are sold almost half price, and there are thousands of bargains. On the first days of the sale the shop is very crowded. Some people stand and wait all night so that they can be the first in the shop when it opens.

The smartest and most expensive shops like Harrods are in the district of London called Knightsbridge, but more people come to Oxford Street, London's most popular shopping centre. There are several big department stores in Oxford Street. The best known is Selfridges. It was founded by an American Gordon Selfridge in 1909.

Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street are the best known shopping centers in London, but in some ways King's Road in Chelsea is more fun. This is where fashionable young Londoners buy their clothes in many small “boutiques”.

You can buy what you like in big shops, but small markets have a lot to offer too. There are several big street mar­kets in London, and many small ones. Some markets are open only one day a week. Covent Garden market is the main market in London. It is open every day. Here shoppers can buy antiques, old clothes, handmade jewellery and many other special things.

The department stores that sell the cheapest kinds of goods in London are Woolworths and Marks and Spencer. There are two of them in Oxford Street, and branches of these stores can be found in almost every town in Britain. Woolworths sells cheap con­sumer goods while Marks and Spencer is a large clothes and food store. They attract a great variety of customers from house wives to millionaires. Princess Diana, Dustin Hoffman and the British Prime Minister are just a few of its famous customers.

It all started 105 years ago when a young Polish immigrant Michael Marks had a stall in Leeds market. He didn't have many things to sell: some cotton, a little wool, lots of buttons and a few shoelaces. Above his stall he put the famous notice: “Don't ask how much – it's a penny.” Ten years later he met Tom Spencer and together they started penny stalls in many towns in the North of England. Today there are 564 branches of Marks & Spencer all over the world: in America, Canada, Spain, France, Belgium and Hungary. The store bases its business on three principles: good value, good quality and good service. It also changes with the times, once it was all jumpers and knickers. Now it is food, furniture and flowers as well. Top fashion designers advise on styles of clothes. Perhaps, the most important key to its success is its happy well-trained staff. Conditions of work are excellent. There are company doctors, dentists, hairdressers, etc. And all the staff can have lunch for under 40 pence.

Shopping in Britain is also famous for its chains of supermarkets and many of them have branches in all the towns of any size. In the beginning the stores sold only foodstuffs, but in recent years they have diversified enormously and now sell clothes, books, records, electrical and domestic equipment. The success of the chain has been due to an enterprising management and to attractive layout and display in the stores. The stores are organized completely for self-service and customers are encouraged to wander around the spaciously laid out stands. Special free gifts and reduced prices are used to tempt customers into the stores and they can't stand the temptation.